Gender Roles
by Adventuresomely
Summary: Tolerance and equality are ever so important, you know.


3 AM.

I found myself looking over at the clock next to my bed, quietly and gently shifting to move out of bed, as to not wake Paula, who slept peacefully next to me with a face worthy of only an angel. It wasn't the first time I'd woken up at 3 AM; my body had a habit of doing it and I had no real explanation for it. I'd been told when I was fifteen that 3 AM was the devil's hour and psychics reacted especially badly to the energy that flowed through the Earth at that time, but it's safe to say that's just a myth. Paula would've woken, too, but she never woke up during the night like me.

Silently, I pulled myself out of bed and wandered through the house Paula and I had gone and started renting; small and cozy, but large enough for a frugal family – a life we'd well intended to live despite my now rich mother and father. I took a seat on the couch and sighed quietly to myself. Whenever I woke up at these times when the vampires still roamed the night and the children still slept away the darkness, my mind always seemed to wander to an amount of different things. Tonight, it wandered to the social tragedy of the day before – if you're an advocate for the sort of thing.

Some things just tended to stick out to me more than others – even when certain things had good intentions and weren't meant in malice. I'm not a self-righteous jerk, though, so it's not something I'd point out to the offenders who hadn't meant to offend. It's more something I ponder on and wish to change about society – even if society isn't the sort to change without an incentive.

"You and Ness are such a beautiful traditional couple! You'll raise a great family, both of you!"

It was something that a middle-aged woman at the park had said to us after her and Paula had gone off and started some idle chit-chattering. Admittedly, it seems such a simple line that may as well be entirely innocent and without a hint of malice. It was, too. There was, however, one thing that I could pick out that didn't belong. 'Traditional'; it wasn't a necessary word that needed to be added in order to give the sentence more value. If anything, it devalued the idea of equality among people's choices and ideas, whatever they might be – even if they differed greatly from conventional thought.

Traditional – it could mean so many things when you think of it. Male and female partnership or typical Christian values overall, since where we lived – Twoson – was a very Christian based town. Maybe even how we dress could define traditionalism. There were a lot of things that it could mean, but no matter what way it was looked at, it seemed somewhat biased and, dare I say, narrow minded to a point. It's not something that I could ever point out to another person openly – everyone is entitled to their opinion even if its view is narrow-minded in retrospect to the ideas another has.

Equality… It's an important thing to me – it's important that all people have their own way so long as it doesn't hurt another. Live and let live, they say; nobody else is to be bound by another person's views because individuality would be taken away in that case. Though it might seem pointless to say this to a statement that was innocent and harmless – it's just a general statement that I think is ultimately true for anyone. You can follow your own views – believe in whatever you want and have as much faith in an idea as you possibly can. It's never quite as okay to force your beliefs on another, though, especially not through threats or means of violence. No, this statement can be applied elsewhere, rather than to a harmless use of a word.

Paula and I were out to dinner at a restaurant, spending a romantic evening together while we still had the chance. In six months, we'd be parents and dates like these would be more limited. The mood was set perfectly and it was a beautiful night – I'd entirely forgotten about the lady at the park had said; what did it matter at that very moment? After about ten or twenty minutes, our dinner had been served – a splurge for the night on some lobster tail and tea, seeing as we weren't old enough yet for wine. Everything had gone fine for about five minutes after we'd been served – the supposed social-tragedy only started when a new couple walked in, both of which whom were female.

I knew these two girls from around town; both had lived in Twoson for all of their lives and had only recently gotten together as a romantic couple. They had done this full knowing that there would be grave social repercussions for it, but they did it because they were in love and that was what was important to them. Since they had gotten together and were often seen holding hands – not doing anything more than that in even the slightest, they were often kicked out of shops and restaurants. This was all done because of the fact that they were not the traditional man and woman couple. Nobody seemed to care for their feelings, because what they were doing went against many people's beliefs in this town.

I found the entire thing very sad. I was born and raised in a Christian household, just the same as Paula, but I never had such extremist views that I would shun a person solely based on who they chose for their partner. That seems absolutely ludicrous to me to be so narrow minded and cruel to a couple because of their sexual preferences. Gender roles in general are very ridiculous; who is to say a woman can't act as a father, or a man act as a mother? Why should anyone care what another person does? If a person is happy in their position and role, you let them be.

The two girls were seated normally at first – the man who seated them either didn't know they were a couple or was unbothered by it for the most part – most likely the former. A few minutes passed and a young waitress soon stopped by their table, before she caught a glimpse at who both girls were. Her expression immediately changed to that of a rather disgusted one. In a rather rude tone, the woman said to the girls,

"Excuse me; I'm going to have to ask both of you to leave. You're both absolutely disgusting and aren't welcome here in this place – you'll contaminate the restaurant with your mental disease."

A few people looked over, including myself and Paula, before most looked away with disinterest. Paula looked at me sadly after such a cruel statement – She wasn't the sort to judge people by their sexual preferences, either, and the treatment that the homophobic waitress was giving the girls now was inexcusable. One of the girls – the shorter blonde covered her face with her hands. I couldn't tell if she was crying or not, but the darker haired girl gave the waitress such a look that if looks could kill, she would've dropped dead then and there. The girl's tone came harsh with anger and frustration – this happened so often it was infuriating at this point, most likely.

"We don't need your damned service if you're going to treat us like crap! We're leaving!"

I took note that the waitress looked like she was about to slap the girl who'd yelled in her face, but was holding herself back for the sake of not being 'contaminated', as she called it. Though it was none of my business to handle this situation, I couldn't sit here and allow this sort of treatment when I was fully capable of stopping it. The darker haired girl stood up, moving to help her girlfriend out of her seat when I stood up, garnering a mildly shocked look from Paula.

"Hey!" I stepped forward, towering over the waitress who had decided to act out against the girls. She looked up at me, quite a few inches shorter, and cowered back slightly. It was easy to see that I intimidated her, which would actually work to my advantage in this situation. I continued, then;

"Are you really going to sit there and treat this pair of customers – who have every right to be here and be serviced since they have money to pay – like trash? Because you're homophobic and don't want to serve them? You will serve them, or I'll call the manager out here and have him or her take your job for refusing to serve perfectly reasonable customers."

It goes without saying; I had stunned both the waitress and the two girls into silence. The smaller blonde looked up at me with such an expression, it just spoke for itself. They'd most likely never had someone stand up for them in this town since her and her girlfriend had gotten together – not once. I helped the dark haired girl back to her seat, offering her a smile as she quietly thanked me, looking down at the table afterwards. I didn't need to be thanked for doing the right thing – but it felt good, regardless. Soon after, the flustered waitress took their drink orders and scampered off to get what they wanted. I'd won that fight, both because she wanted to keep her job and because she was scared of me.

Soon, I took my seat across from Paula once more, grinning brightly at her expression. She seemed shocked, but at the same time, proud that I'd stood up for someone who really needed it, despite knowing I could've potentially gotten us both kicked out.

The rest of the evening had gone perfectly fine – Paula and I finished our dinner, the girls had been served like normal, and nobody had been a bother to anyone else. That's how it should've been from the beginning, and once we went home, Paula and I had spent the rest of the evening talking about everything that'd happened. She was shocked at the fact that I'd been brave enough to face against something a majority of people supported – even if what they supported was certainly immoral and unkind. I didn't regret it at all – I'd done the right thing, even if the right thing was standing against my own religion and the ideas that people had in supporting the religion.

A smile crossed my lips as I slowly stirred and went back to the bedroom where Paula still lay sleeping. 4:30 AM; an hour and a half had been spent pondering over the previous day's events and it didn't feel like I'd wasted a single moment.

Gender roles are silly – People should be allowed to do what they want, love who they want, and be what they want, without exception. Why should any of us be forced to do something we don't want to do just because of gender?


End file.
